“Mother”
Aubusson tapestry woven by Pinton, numbered 1/6 on the reverse.
Chaim Gross (1904-1991) was a modern American artist working in New York City from 1921 until his death in 1991. Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna shortly before emigrating to New York City in 1921.
In New York City, Gross’s studies continued at the Educational Alliance Art School on the Lower East Side, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, and at the Art Students League. He exhibited at the Whitney Studio Club at 10 West 8th Street (the precursor to the Whitney Museum of American Art). In March 1932 Gross had his frst solo exhibition of sculpture at Gallery 144 in New York City.
In 1974, the Washington D.C. art critic Frank Getlein published an Abrams monograph entitled Chaim Gross; the Smithsonian American Art Museum held the exhibition, Chaim Gross: Sculpture and Drawings; and the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation was created. In 1977, Gross had three retrospective exhibitions: at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, followed by the Montclair Art Museum; and at the Jewish Museum in New York City. In 1980, the Austro-American art historian Alfred Werner published the major monograph, Chaim Gross: Watercolors and Drawings. In 1984, Gross was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In the fall of 1991, Allen Ginsberg gave an important tribute to Gross at the American Academy of Arts and Letters.